Archives for April 19, 2011

‘“I thought he looked pretty good,” Montador said after the game. “He chased down an icing there in the first period and I thought his legs were looking good. I think stepping into a playoff game’s not an easy thing to do, but I knew he’d be alright.”’

‘Surviving the Sabres’ two-man advantage was critical. “It came at a pivotal time and if you want to win games, you’re going to have to kill situations like that,” Boucher said. “We did a great job on that and the four-minute kill late in the first and early in the second.”’

‘"They scored on their chances and we didn’t," Stafford said. "They made a great tic-tac-toe kind of play on a breakdown [for Nikolay Zherdev’s goal]. It’s just them burying their chances and us missing a couple opportunites. We have to keep our compete level up and keep battling."’

‘Boyes is making $4 million and is signed through next season. He’s one of the Sabres’ top offensive players, but he failed to score for a 14th straight game in a 4-2 loss to the Flyers in Game Three. On Monday, he epitomized a Sabres team that had plenty of scoring opportunities and its best offensive performance but failed where it mattered most — on the scoreboard.’

‘"It’s been a good three weeks since I’ve been out there and I know I made a couple mental mistakes on the third goal and I can take responsibility for that," he said. "That’s part of hockey but we go forward from here, bury this one."’

‘The Sabres ended the first period with the momentum and a 1-1 tie, but a bad mistake put them down just 2:44 into the second period. The Flyers are tough to come back against, as the final score indicates.’